The Problem with Battle Points.

One major competitive drawback of 40k tournaments are their scoring methods. The typical RTT or GT doesn't use a simple win, lose or draw result and then award points accordingly like in Chess or Magic: The Gathering. Instead it incorporates "battle point" scoring where points are carried over from round to round and a running tally is given. Winning and losing is secondary to simply how many battle points are scored in each game. What earns battle points? Wins will almost always grant these, but losses do too. Ultimately it's up to the tournament organizer. Defined secondary objectives can grant points, like killing HQ's or certain force organization slots (what if your opponent has few or none of these?). Often the margin of victory is also employed. If you blow out your opponent you are awarded a much higher battle point total than if you simply edge out the enemy. In 40k tournament play, a win isn't just a win.

The problem with this scoring method is that it skews the meta-game. Certain army types will excel at secondary objectives. Other army types will not even if in a straight up match the army list proves competitive. Some army types and codices can massacre enemies far more easily that others, thus racking up larger margin of victory awards. Some mission types can thwart massacre victories and prevent this just the same. Because of these types of scoring players are punished from taking certain types of lists. Just winning is no longer important, blowing out your opponent becomes the primary objective and players will alter their play or their army lists to satisfy that. Even worse, players who are paired with lesser generals with uncompetitive lists are rewarded with a greater chance at blowout victories. Players who play against quality opponents are punished because not only are victories harder to come by, but when you do win the margin is usually much tighter. In 40k tournament play, playing good players can crush your battle point scores. Playing scrubs can send you to the final tables.

In 40k tournament play where battle points are present, you want to play an army that can table opponents completely, and you want to prey on lesser generals to rack up your battle point scores. Playing to win isn't good enough, you want to play for the blowout. Until tournament organizers change how battle points are scored, the meta-game will favor certain army types that have a propensity to massacre, favor certain generalship styles that reward reckless deployment strategies and encourage favorable tournament pairings where generals with win at all cost armies get a golden ticket to play incompetent players with suboptimal lists.

Batrep: Chaos Space Marines

Editor: Anthony Wang put together a batrep from the 2/20 tournament that we organized . He piloted Chaos Space Marines.

(: it was great fun! went really smoothly and finished early…amazing!

games were all really really tight…came down to getting turn 6 for my games 2 and 3

gotta wait for my nails to grow back now…

thanks to Nash and Shep for running it!

heres a quick summary of my games…

my list:

1 Nurgle DP with Wings and WT
1 Nurgle DP with Wings and Rot

3 terminators with combimeltas

5 man PM squad with 2 meltas, champ with fist, rhino
5 man PM squad with 2 meltas, champ with fist, rhino
5 man PM squad with 2 plaz, rhino

2 oblits
2 oblits
2 oblits

— game 1 Deathguard vs. Orks —

ork list:
2 battlewagons: one with shoota boyz, other with shoota boyz with bigmek KFF
1 big squad of lootas
2 smaller squad of lootas
2 deff coptas
1 trukk with warboss and 3 mega nobs
1 unit of grots

i got a bye since i was the odd man out…but played AbsoluteBlue for fun

table: large impassable tower in the middle, scattered hills and area terrain
mission: dawn of war, cap and control

nothing is deployed on either side

Turn 2 Orks: units come on the table with nothing to shoot at
Turn 2 DG: rhinos move forward and pop smoke with DP hiding behind, oblits all shoot at wagons to no effect, oblit blows up trukk

Turn 3 Orks: lootas shoot at rhinos and oblits, nothing happens, warboss and nobs move up
Turn 3 DG: plaz squad gets out and shoots nobs, PM dies to overheat, and inflicts one wound on nobs, prince charges and kills warboss, termicide comes down and blows up wagon

Turn 4 Orks: shooting sees one rhino immobilized and a wount on an oblit, boyz shooting and assault kills termicide, DP kills nobs, Deffcopta comes in and shoots off a rhino’s bolter
Turn 4 DG: meltas kill deffcopta, melta squad shoots wagon and blows it up. Oblits kill lots of orks with PC. DPs charge lootas, wipes them out. melta squad charges remaining orks, killing them.

Turn 5 Orks: deff copta comes on shoots rhino with rokkits, destroying one i think? lootas kill another oblit, put a wound on a DP
Turn 5 DG: DPs clean up lootas and grots, oblits and PM squad move back to the hope objective and kill deff copta, 2 PM squads capture enemy obj

win for DG!

– game 2 DG vs Jarrod’s tzeentch daemons —

Tzeench list:
- fateweaver…scary
- herald on disk
- herald on disk
- 5 flamer squad
- 5 flamer squad
- 3 blood crushers
- horror squad x 3

table: scattered ruins and area terrain
mission: annihilation, pitched battle

deployment
DG: sets up a standard castle, rhinos outside, DP and oblits on a hill inwide rhino wall
Daemons: drops in center of table around FW

Turn 1 DG: shoots 6 PCs at flamers manages no wounds, 2 rhinos pop smoke
Turn 1 Daemons: bolts immobilizes a rhino, blows off a bolter off another rhino

Turn 2 DG: Oblits kill 1 flamer, and puts 1 wound on crushers
Turn 2 Daemons: kills a rhino, puts 3 wounds on a DP, and kills a PM squad, crushers move forward

Turn 3 DG: oblits shoot a lot of plaz and PM shoot meltas killing crushers, DP charges a flamer unit killing some, oblits kill some horrors, shooting puts a wound on FW
Turn 3 Daemons: flamers try to kill DP but fail, FW charges DP doesnt wound, DP puts another wound on FW, prince kills flamers

Turn 4 DG: oblits continue to pummel horrors with PCs kills one Horror unit to 1 man, DP charges flamers, other DP charges horrors in hope to wipe them out on daemons turn, termicide drops in behind horrors to prevent them from escaping
Turn 4 Daemons: herald and horrors kill termicide…): cant make a 2+ save, DP still cant kill horrors, nothing really happens with FW melee

Turn 5 DG: nothing much to shoot at, DP manages to kill a couple horrors, nothing happens with FW melee
Turn 5 Daemons: DP still cant kill horror unit >_<;;; Jarrod made like 6 4+ saves

i roll a 1 and game ends :( …we tie! 3 – 3 kill points

A Rhino Wall

– game 3 DG vs Ryan’s Templars —

Black Templar list:
- lord on bike with lightning claws
- emperor’s champ
- tact squad with melta, rhino
- tact squad with melta, rhino
- tact squad with plaz, LC, rhino
- pred with LC, HB
- pred with LC, HB
- venerable dread with TLLC, flamer, DCCW, pod

tables : scattered area terrain, center building blocking LoS
mission: seize ground 5 obj, spearhead

table: scattered ruins and area terrain
mission: annihilation, spearhead
ryan gave me first turn and i chose the quarter with 3 objectives

Turn 1 DG: rhinos and DPs move up behind center building, oblits pop 1 pred
Turn 1 BT: rhino moves up pops smoke, another rhino moves up, pred kills an oblit

Turn 2 DG: Oblits kills other pred and a rhino, plaz rhino drives up to an objective, oblits shoot PC at some tact marines killing a couple
Turn 2 BT: tact squad with dead rhino moves up to the center building and kills a rhino with the meltagun, rhino moves up to an objective, squad with emp’s champ disembarks behind rhino

Turn 3 DG: both princes charge tact squad near center and wipes it. PM moves to capture objective. oblits shoot PC at emp’s champ squad, killing 1-2 marines.
Turn 3 BT: Dread comes in right in the middle of the 3 objectives in my quarter. shoots LC and flamer at an oblit squad killing 1. Lord comes on from reserves turbo boosting behind my lines

DG: 3 obj BT: 2 obj

Turn 4 DG: meltas shoot lord on bike but he makes his saves. plaz PMs, 3 oblits, 3 termicide shoot at dread imobilizing and blows off the TLLC >_<. melta PMs shoot the storm bolter off the pod. both princes fly and charge emp’s champ squad…i proceed to forget to cast WT for the next 4 assault phases >_<, DPs kill some marines Turn 4 BT: Lord charges and kills PM squad to 1 man. Emp’s champ squad gets killed by DPs. dread shoots flamer to no avail

DG: 2 obj BT: 1 obj

Turn 5 DG: oblits, PMs, all shoot at dread taking off his DCCW only >_<, DPs kill tact squad, oblits charge in and again whiff on the dread, Lord kills PM squad Turn 5: Lord charges rhino with PMs on top of objective, oblits still cant manage to hit the dread, rhino drive up to contest objective

DG: 0 obj BT: 1 obj

i roll another 1 and the game ends!!! D:<>

curses…i would have won game 2 and 3 if the game could have gone on for another turn
i basically rolled under odds towards the end of both games and couldnt kill the horrors in CC and couldnt dislodge the venerable dread despite a rain of melta fire.

Up against Blood Templars

my mistakes:

1) forgetting to cast warptime about 40% of the time, which got the DPs stuck in CC for too long and couldnt contest other objectives, charge other units
2) playing as if the game would have gone past turn 5 so didnt manage my army’s movement accordingly and was caught flat footed when the games ended early
3) not protecting my objectives well enough. the last game i let the BT rhino contest my objective where if i drove it up a bit more the rhino would not have been able to get close enough to my objective

I had a great time despite my mistakes, a great learning experience!

- Anthony Wang

Playing: Sprue Posse RTT at Aero Boyz

The Sprue Posse presents the:

SPRUE POSSE OPEN

5th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament

Saturday, April 24th, 11:00 AM

Hosted by

Aero Hobbies and Games

1500 Points

3 Rounds Swiss-System

INAT FAQ*

Unpainted Models Allowed; WYSIWYG

Standard Missions from the 5th Edition Rulebook

To be announced on day of tournament

Prize Support for Best General

Prize Support for Best Painted

$10 entry fee!

Limited Seating!

Sign Up at Aero Hobbies

Please submit a typed army list to the tournament organizer on the day of the tournament.

*INAT FAQ is the independent national tournament FAQ located here:

http://www.adepticon.org/wpfiles/inat/INATFAQv3.3.pdf

Aero Hobbies and Games

2918 Santa Monica Boulevard #3
Santa Monica, CA 90404

(310) 828-5264

Questions? Please contact Mark at markemn@yahoo.com

Army: Thinking About Orks

I have recently been considering starting an Ork army. I started before the FAQ update regarding the use of Deff Rollas, and was initially considering a heavy bike list. I have had the fortune of obtaining some Biker Nobz and had a friend paint them up. However, I knew this list was more of a novelty list and not really a consistently competitive list and wanted to fill it out with Lootas, Wagons, and more, but the new FAQ sort of forced me to change my line of thinking. I have been asking myself, how do I create a fun, story driven, competitive Speed Freak army?

My initial thoughts center around 3 Battlewagons with Deff Rollas, Red Paint Job, Boarding Planks, and Grabba Klaws. With Wazdakka and a KFF Big Mek as part of that core. The rest would be filled out with Lootas, Bikes, Boyz, and I might try to wedge in a small Nob Biker squad.

Still just thinking out loud, but its approaching my time for a new army.